At this time it is in private alpha testing, meaning that only a small handful of devs are testing it. The first public alpha is expected around mid to late December of 2007 (however it may be released sooner). All developers will receive a link to a "Developers Edition" of MPhlak Private Alpha. This developers edition will contain (hopefully) everything that will be needed by any developer of MPhlak. Development has begun.

See, we were planning on using Ubuntu as a base, but it was far too bloated. So we decided to try Slackware, still too bloated and too much trouble to work with. Then we tried Puppy and fell in love. It's small, its fast, it runs from a Live CD, it is easy to use, easy to manage and is perfect.

A BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG thanks to all the developers who have worked on Puppy, you all have done a great job! You should be proud.

From http://sourceforge.net/projects/mphlak/ site: MPhlak is a second generation of Phlak. Since the Phlak project has ended development until further notice, we are creating a new Phlak codenamed MPhlak for Marks Professional Hackers Linux Assault Kit. MPhlak is aimed at security professionals.

Sounds interesting. Perhaps you could post more details about the project. I found the following concerning the original Phlak project at http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/PHLAK

Quote:

PHLAK (Professional Hacker's Linux Assault Kit) is a modular live security Linux distribution. PHLAK comes with two light gui's (Fluxbox and XFce 4), many security tools, and a spiral notebook full of security documentation. PHLAK is a derivative of Morphix, created by Alex de Landgraaf. PHLAK was created by James Hartman and Shawn Hawkins and was featured as one of the best applications of 2005 on TechTv's TheScreenSavers by digg.com founder Kevin Rose.

The project will continue to stay in the hands of the founders until it can be re-birthed in the future. We appreciate Mark Reaves for his desired to take over the project, however we are are unable to hand over the project. Development will continue one day, but right now the most important thing to do is take on fatherhood and re-visit PHLAK at a later date...This page was last modified 18:58, October 15, 2007

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Are you the Mark mentioned above, or one of the original Phlak creators or someone else?

It certainly would be great to revive such an interesting project, and particularly interesting if it is being done using Puppy Linux as the base.

yea i am the mark they spoke of. see, i really enjoyed phlak and ive been waiting a long time for a new release. then the phlak.org site expired and apparently development was dead. so i found the phlak project on sourceforge and contacted the dev.

i asked since he didnt have the time to work on it, if i could take it over. he let me.. for a few days at least. he decided it best for him and his "team" to hold on to phlak. he said he has spent so much time on it that he just cant turn it over to anyone else. he suggested that if i wanted to to create a distro of my own that is simular to phlak that i could.... so i did.

i was going to make a simular clone fork, but debian and ubuntu have grown too big to fit them and the needed progs onto one livecd and still run well.

mphlak will be simular to what phlak was, but it will be very different. mphlak will have function over beauty. to me, id rather have an ugly or plain lookin distro that does all i want, than to have a pretty distro that is limited.

yes i will be working on the graphics for mphlak, but right now i want to get all (or at least the best) programs for security uses in the distro prior to beta. during beta will be when graphics and documentation and such will be worked on.

as it sits now, i need to get the website up. apparently sourceforge is having issues. they apparently will also get around to looking into it whenever they feel like it. im not sure if u seen the "seeking donations" news post but after much consideration (had plenty of time to think about it while waiting on sourceforge), mphlak needs to purchase hosting. since im flat broke, i asked for donations. if the public is interested enough, then i will get the cash needed. if not, then the site will be up whenever sourceforge fixes their problems with their server.

also not sure if u noticed the "help wanted" section. i know this distro will be a lot of work. i also want to see this distro is first stable by june 2008. so, im seeking help as i know i cant get it to first stable by june by myself.

anyway, sorry for all the rambling, lol. also, as u may have noticed right now i dont care about proper punctuation and capitalization. ive been working all day on cleaning and mphlak and other stuff so im wore out.

as it sits now, i need to get the website up. apparently sourceforge is having issues. they apparently will also get around to looking into it whenever they feel like it. im not sure if u seen the "seeking donations" news post but after much consideration (had plenty of time to think about it while waiting on sourceforge), mphlak needs to purchase hosting. since im flat broke, i asked for donations. if the public is interested enough, then i will get the cash needed. if not, then the site will be up whenever sourceforge fixes their problems with their server

I suspect that it's not a good idea to ask for donations in this way, before anything at all has been produced. If your project is genuine then I'm sure there are a number of people who would be keen to help freely, and some who would even be likely to offer free hosting if that was required. Alternatively, I'd imagine sourceforge will sort out any problems soon enough.

I do believe that it is important that the original Phlak creators are happy for you to proceed with a distribution so similarly named. I would have thought that just putting 'M' in front of the original project's name might not make them very happy. However, if all has indeed been cleared with Phlak's creators and everything else is above-board then I'm sure you will find plenty of help on this particularly friendly and helpful forum.

I used to teach network security and data comms in general, so I well-appreciate the continuing needs for distributions such as Phlak, and the importance of these distributions remaining up-to-date. In the meantime, please keep us informed of developments, though I do suggest you forget about monetary donations at such an early stage.

Simular or similar? The reason I ask is not to pick nits, but to make sure I understand what you've written. There is enough, ahem ... dissimilarity in definitions to warrant the question.

Quote:

as u may have noticed right now i dont care about proper punctuation and capitalization. ive been working all day on cleaning and mphlak and other stuff so im wore out.

Guess what? That justification is worn out, too. And I'll bet those meanie devs of Phlak were sticklers about proper punctuation and capitalization ..._________________hangout: ##b0rked on irc.freenode.net
diversion:http://alienjeff.net - visit The Fringe
quote: "The foundation of authority is based upon the consent of the people." - Thomas Hooker

Simular or similar? The reason I ask is not to pick nits, but to make sure I understand what you've written. There is enough, ahem ... dissimilarity in definitions to warrant the question.
Quote:
as u may have noticed right now i dont care about proper punctuation and capitalization. ive been working all day on cleaning and mphlak and other stuff so im wore out.

Guess what? That justification is worn out, too. And I'll bet those meanie devs of Phlak were sticklers about proper punctuation and capitalization ...

typo, yes i know...

as for the devs of phlak, they are not "meanies". the main phlak dev is actually very busy with his family and his life, which is why he stopped development.

sounds to me like you need a break from whatever you are doing

As for donations, the project will take what it gets. if someone wants to offer free hosting, thats fine. but from experience i found that people who are interested enough are more willing to "throw money at the problem" to sort of "make it go away". i did obtain an offer for free hosting last night, I just have to obtain a domain name.

1. start with donating to Barry rather than asking for donations; after all, you will use Puppy as your project's starting point;

2. heed advise rather than start an argument; the Alien may not be the friendliest guy around, but he has a point.

The issue of "earning your stars" has come up here in the past, so you will have to earn yours before anything else. This is a friendly forum, so earning it should be easy enough. It's the hard work that counts._________________Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? Get the sfs (English only).

1. start with donating to Barry rather than asking for donations; after all, you will use Puppy as your project's starting point;

2. heed advise rather than start an argument; the Alien may not be the friendliest guy around, but he has a point.

The issue of "earning your stars" has come up here in the past, so you will have to earn yours before anything else. This is a friendly forum, so earning it should be easy enough. It's the hard work that counts.

1. i have no cash to donate

2. im not trying to start an argument. and alien does seem to need a break. i was telling the truth.

mphlak isnt gonna be easy. i know this. yes it is based on puppy but a lot more "will" be done to the puppy core. adding graphics and programs is only a small part. there will need to be some changes in the core itself later on.

as for "earning my stars"... i always try to be helpful. i always do what i can to help others. yes im new and yes i know people dont know me and i dont know anyone else here... i will still help a stranger.

however, if someone starts something with me, i tend to take offense. i still try to be nice but can sometimes seem a little harsh. no negativity meant

That's the key MPhlak. It's great to be enthusiastic about your project, and no doubt it's an interesting one, which may well attract lots of attention and help, but these things take time. Like I suggested, the beginning of an open source project is not a good time to request monetary donations. There are lots of people on this forum who build their own Puppy-based distributions and who are capable of building or helping to build the distribution you are planning, though some of them may currently be busy with their own interesting plans.

We are all I think very grateful to Barry Kauler for his creation, and to all who have helped take it to where it is today. However, no-one really "owes" anyone anything here; FOSS is a collaborative, contributing project afterall, but I do nevertheless understand what raffy means when he talks about earning "stars". It is the way most, if not all, such communities work I expect; it takes time to earn respect, that's all it's about really. By all means start by asking for technical help, that will be freely given here, but otherwise contribute by giving rather than by materially asking is a good policy that will eventually take you a long way around here.

Quote:

the Alien may not be the friendliest guy around

That is "almost" an understatement, though its fair to say that the Alien does at (rare) times demonstrate at least a little charm. Take his comments with a pinch of salt; no point ever being truly offended around here (no harm in occasionally barking back either, I say).

Most people are helpful and friendly to a level hardly seen on any other forum, in my opinion. Puppy Linux is an exciting, powerful little OS distribution, but I'd say that it derives a fair chunk of its quality from the excellence of this forum, and I'm quite new to it myself actually (and that has never stopped may saying what I believe; no matter how many "stars" I may or may not now have hahaha).

Quote:

however, if someone starts something with me, i tend to take offense

Really that would be a waste of time, yours and anyone elses. No-one would ultimately care, and you would simply turn people away from becoming interested in your project. You will find a bit rough among the smooth here, but its best to just ignore that and concentrate on what is important; your project in this case.Last edited by mcewanw on Tue 30 Oct 2007, 20:57; edited 1 time in total

Oh... and whilst "perfect" spelling and grammar is (I mean are) hardly important, a reasonable attempt at that art is, I feel, appreciated by most of us. We all make typos, and who cares, but as far as I'm concerned at least, horrible grammar and missed out vowels no longer appears cool or hip (if it ever did), but just dated, boring and lazy; it has been overdone.

The fact is, it does take time and effort to express ideas well, so the way comments are written tends to reflect on the value of their content. The effect has nothing to do with conservatism. I'm sure everyone would agree with my saying that Jonyo is one of the masters of exposition on this forum (sigh...). Sage on the other hand...

as for spelling and grammer, i try. that is all i can do. im dyslexic, and usually very wore out and tired. when i am tired, i tend to "overlook" typos and spelling errors. that is one reason i try to stay away from programming as it will have typos no matter how much i try. typos in programming can cause many problems.

The importance of spelling is evident if you open a console and type a couple of commands.

1) dict simular

2) dict similar

CLI-phobic/challenged/petrified may use PBdict to look up those words. Hard core old school types may use an "analog" dictionary.

Barring any legitimate physical/mental handicap(s), or broken/reassigned keyboard shift keys, the usual reason for ignoring capitalization and proper punctuation is pure laziness. Blasting out a draft copy of something is quite a different matter than posting to a forum.

If I initially came across as standoffish, I apologize. In your original post it read like you were simply too physically exhausted to lift a pinky finger to hit those heavily spring-loaded shift keys. _________________hangout: ##b0rked on irc.freenode.net
diversion:http://alienjeff.net - visit The Fringe
quote: "The foundation of authority is based upon the consent of the people." - Thomas Hooker

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